C1 Women’s Canoe Events Proposed for Tokyo Olympics

At the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Board of Directors meeting in Lima, Peru, motions were carried to support the inclusion of C1 Women Canoe Slalom and C1 Women 200m Canoe Sprint at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and to guarantee complete gender equity across both Olympic disciplines (Sprint and Slalom) by the 2024 Olympic Games.

These decisions will now be proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Jose Perurena, ICF President and IOC Member, commented, “This is exceptionally positive for our sport and clarifies our position to ensure equity at every level of competition.”

“Women’s C1 in both Sprint and Slalom has improved dramatically over the last couple of years and the proposal to include it in the Olympic programme will further support its future development.”

The proposed inclusion of Women’s C1 Canoe Slalom reinforces the significant progress and increasing popularity of the discipline and will certainly please the recently crowned World Champion Jessica Fox (AUS), who has been a vocal advocate for its addition to the programme.

Likewise, the 21-year-old double C1 Women 200m Sprint World Champion, Laurence Vincent-Lapointe (CAN) will also be delighted by the prospect of Olympic competition.

Also discussed at the meeting was the increasing TV presence of the sport with over 50 hours live coverage in 2013 and a significant jump in audience figures.

Additions to the competitive calendar were also agreed with Pietermartzburg (RSA) winning the right to host the 2017 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships and Nantahala the 2015 ICF Junior Wildwater Canoeing World Championships.

Hungary’s most successful athlete Katalin Kovacs has given birth nine months ago. She's in training camp in Abu Dhabi collecting kilometers at the moment. She's preparing for the World Championships and at the same time she's also planning ahead for the Rio Olympics.